Ch.39 ...Each Other

Q'ill hurriedly cast another, much smaller, (Blaze Shield) around herself as her tiny stature easily weaves thru the blade net. While Q'ill dodges with seeming ease, she was paying attention to the mage. Much like any other Church Knight, their power is overwhelming but requires tools to fix their shortcomings, it is the unpredictable mages she has to worry about.

However, something seemed wrong with the Knights attacks. Although they were powerful and she could feel getting hit by one would kill if not heavily injure her, they lacked the speed and swiftness Knight's she and her squat had held back in other invasions before. wanting to take advantage of these openings she was about to cast a spell towards the Knight, only to feel the mage's movements.

Just as Q'ill thought, the Mage was gathering wind mana most likely preparing to trip her into one of the blade waves. "(Levitate!)", as the spell surrounded her the graceful dodging turned into overshooting movements. As she didn't expect the dam mage to use a support-type spell on her, she kept brushing against the blade waves, the edges of her shield slowly shattering.

Commanding her own mana to forcefully expand, purging the wind magic from her, quickly made her face pale as it covered almost the whole room. Before she killed herself by mana exhaustion, she forced it back inside her with great ease. No longer feeling like a dry husk and the ease she did it confused her, but she had better things to worry about at the moment as she resumed dodging.

Finally out of the net of blade waves she gives the mage a dirty look, as the knight looked annoyed and said, "you're a lot stronger than your army rank, this makes things a lot more complicated." Q'ill focused back on the Knight, "funny, I was also wondering why you were so weak. Knights are known for their might but even I could dodge those slow attacks of yours."

Snorting, the Knight charged towards the fairy only for it to fly in the air, dodging his blade waves yet again. Activating his chest plate enchantment a new (Angels Veil) embraces him as he chased after the fairy with the aid of golden wings.

Looking at the fight in the air the scholar was just as confused as the fairy, the apparent dissociation between the Knight's strength and his actual battle performance made no sense. Watching as the fairy expertly avoided all of the blade waves while finding time to counter-attacked with fire spells he was about to aid the Knight only to see a flash of green in his lateral vision.

Instantly casting (Wind Steps) as he accelerated backward, the sneaking vine heading for his head miss by an inch, with only a small cut in his cheek as the price for ignoring the still very much alive boss. As he dodges the following vines a sense of dread strikes his mind, his mana senses feeling the now familiar mana cluster coming from the boss's main body.

With no time to recollect himself, a discolored mana beam reaches him as he uses all his mana to force one last, instant (Breezy Shield) as it impacted, surprisingly holding the beam off for two seconds. "Ahhhh!!!" Hearing the Scholar's scream Avanlo snaps out of his anger, bringing his pride under control he ignored the annoying fly and proceeded to attack the less nimble boss.

Seeing this, Q'ill quickly cast a series of (Fire Ball) towards the Knight, as she turned around aiming at the dust cloud the beam had left, casting even more of them at the center before chasing the Knight. Flinching for a second, Avanlo decided that killing the boss, opening the way to the core room, would complete his mission, the Scholar's death should be blamed on his unattendeds'.

He paid no attention to those weak spells aimed at him while gathering the power of blessings on his sword. Suddenly, noise can be heard from the crater the boss's attack left behind, just before the fire balls hit. The Scholar blasted out of the dust cloud, covered in a breezy shield. His rope was in tatters, while his only remaining hand was holding a potion to his lips as he hastily swallowed the contents.

Avanlo mentally snorted, of course, as if those cockroaches would obediently die, While sending a net of blades toward the boss, sealing all of its escape routes. As the Fairies (Fire Ball) reached him, he couldn't stop a look of derision, all of them had missed him by a large margin.

Ignoring the useless spells he focuses on his Life Aura, using it to redirect his blade waves, not allowing the Boss to escape its range. Seeing the Knight ignoring her Fire Balls, Q'ill smile as she aimed at them, "burst." The spell lost the caster's will keeping it in shape, as it exploded into a cloud of fire and smoke. This action was but a scratch to the Angel's Veil, it did, however, blind the Knight.

An infuriated cry came from Avanlo as he saw the Boss had completely dodged his attacks, in his fury, he attempted to get rid of the Fairy to no avail. While the Knight was distracted, the Scholar had almost made it outside the boss room, most of his ropes were gone revealing grayish-green hair and a withered face full of blood.

Flying at top speed he dodges the leaf storms and severed vine snakes chasing after him. Turning to the Boss doors he calls out, "YOU DAM BASTARDS, BE USEFUL AND BURN THESE DAM THINGS!!" his yelling does not go unanswered, as the few remaining mages started to incinerate the vine segments while erecting earth walls, blocking the Boss's undamaged vines from bursting the windshield.

Escaping from near death, the Scholar could not stop shaking. The only remaining Water mage used the second circle (Water Mend) a few times, finally stabilizing the Scholars' wounds. Looking at the missing hand and ghastly scars the mages knew they could do nothing more, they needed to ask a priest for further healing.

"Sir Scholar, what should we do now?" Said the remaining soldiers, "Sir Knight seems unable to deal with that Fairy." Standing up with shaky feet the mage snorted, "sir Knight can handle this himself, as you saw, I am but a burden, my wellbeing can not compromise the mission."

The rest of the mages understood the underline meaning, nodding, while the soldiers only thought the Boss did not allow for distractions, as they kept praying for the Knight's success, seeing how it almost kill them and the powerful Scholar. "We are retrieving. The Fairy Army's patience has a limit and the dam Beastmen won't wait for much longer." Giving the Knight one last cold glance, he left with his mages, the few soldiers obediently following them.

Avanlo was caught in a quagmire, the Fairy was far stronger than her army rank, she was similarly someone nearing the gate of rank four. She also seemed to know all his tricks, dodging them in advance or using simple spells to break his rhythm, his every action interrupted. In his fury, he decided to mock the annoying fly.

"How much longer are you gonna get in my way. I admit that killing you as I am now is difficult, however, unlike you, I still have large reserves of god's blessing in me, while your mana is nearly gone." Panting, Q'ill gave him a dry smile knowing she was on her limit. The side effect of the forbidden spell showing its fangs.

Her Elemental Mana was gone, she did not have enough resources to fight someone who from what she could tell, had the experience of a rank two warrior, while the resources of a rank four Knight. Although she could tap into Malpetios Mana resources she did not dare to.

That child had told her his mana pool was five-hundred, the same as a rank one mage would have, while his Elemental mana was a vast ocean the depths of which shocked her, yet she could not use it as her own. Malpetios could hold but a bucket at a time, which had confused her, as he cast Mana Song not long ago.

Giving the Lily a passing glance, she could see it had healed all its vines, sadly the corona was healing at a snail's pace. Knowing her time was up and seeing that even now there were no signs of the Fairy Army she truly accepted that she was abandoned by them. Dodging another wave of blades she closed her eyes taking a deep breath, a single tear fell from her cheek.

She tosses the wand gifted to her when she was finally promoted after so many years in service. Deep in her heart, she always knew someone was pulling her down, but could never find who. Being send here to die her heart was already dead, however, she took a look at the core room doors, now I have someone to fight for.

Seeing the strange actions of the fairy, Avanlo was about to finish up the spent opponent when she tossed her wand away. Making a large "CLANK" as it hit the floor. He was truly wide-eye at this moment, he has never seen one of these mages with a warrior's hearth ever let go of their wands.

The Church has many records of these Fairys never letting go no matter what even as they die they never let go of their death grip. These things were born to defend the Dungeons and fight to their last breath. In his confusion, he stood there as he saw the Fairy bring out a strange-looking red flower.

Coming back to his senses as he felt danger from that flower he quickly attacks the Fairy. As Q'ill saw the attack she smiled and activated the weapon Malpetios gifted her. In the next moment, a small orange ball of fire with whiteish flames in the middle appeared in her other hand, seeing this the Knight's face went pale as he quickly brought his shield in front of him.

"Fourth circle (Pyro Ball)!!" Leaving her hand in great speed, the ball of fire pierce thru the blade waves with little resistance as the Knight flew away from his original spot. All this time the Knight had kept the Boss behind him, restraining the Fairy from going all out, as well as a reason to keep it from running away, and reporting to U'ziq. But in reality, he simply wanted to kill the fly who dared to give him such trouble.

If it really left he would have plenty of time to kill this weak Boss and retrieve the Core, escaping with his master's (Space Rending Cube), although this Fairy was clearly sent here to die, he did not know if U'ziq was part of the faction that wants her dead or not. However, non of this matters, this Fairy somehow got herself a High-Mage weapon capable of casting rank four spells.

He would use this to his advantage and kill the Boss with it, as he saw the spell pass him he quickly prepared to rush inside the core room and escape with the cube. Suddenly, large vines shot at him from his blind spots, snorting, he ignored the pathetic struggle of a soon-to-be-dead Boss as he waited for the Pyro ball to reduce it to ash.

Turning his attention back on the spell he froze, the ball of condensed flames had at some point turned around, once again aimed at him. Panicking he tried to dodge only to have all his escape routes blocked by thick vines, useless as they are it would still take a second to escape, sadly it's a second too late.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!"